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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26557153">Struck a Chord</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Reggie-centric</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:06:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,300</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26557153</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A musical disagreement at band practice between Alex and Luke devolves into a full-blown argument.</p><p>Reggie, child of near-divorce, doesn't take this development very well.</p><p>(And Julie steps in to fix everything, as always.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex &amp; Julie Molina &amp; Luke Patterson &amp; Reggie, Alex &amp; Luke Patterson &amp; Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Implied/Referenced Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Julie Molina &amp; Reggie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1512</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Anonymous</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Struck a Chord</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>me, banging on the glass of my netflix screen to try and contact the JatP writers: GIVE REGGIE LEGITIMATE CHARACTER MOMENTS SO HELP ME</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>They’ve been stuck on this vocal part for the better part of an hour at this point.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reggie cringes as the three of them open their mouths and sing out something that sounds more like a tritone more than a harmony. He watches Luke strum his pick too aggressively across his strings and Alex glare over the drum kit and Reggie just knows that the storm that’s brewing is going to hit before they even get through the first chorus.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aghh!” Luke hisses, playing chord that’s definitely not in the song they were trying to play through.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Half a beat later, Alex thumps a couple off-beat beats and slams his drumsticks down on the snare drum. “It’s just not working today,” he says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, there’s a </span>
  <em>
    <span>reason</span>
  </em>
  <span> it’s not working,” Luke says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘Scuse me?” Alex asks, raising one of his eyebrows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Luke hisses in a breath through his teeth and shakes his head. His hair flops in front of his eyes, but he doesn’t seem to even notice. He lifts the guitar off his shoulder and lays it against an amp so he can storm away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, we’re not done! What was that supposed to mean?” Alex shouts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guys,” Reggie tries, even if his voice won’t cooperate and speak loudly enough to command the room. “Maybe—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Luke!” Alex barks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you want from me?” Luke asks, whirling around and throwing his arms out. “It’s not my fault that you’re not listening to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I told you, that harmony doesn’t work!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span> if you would sing it the right way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The right way?” Alex scoffs, tilting his head. “You do realize that just because you wrote it doesn’t make it good, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really? We’re going there?” Luke asks incredulously. “It’s a wonder you even have standards for what’s good. I mean, you like Dirty Candy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>judging</span>
  </em>
  <span> me now?” Alex asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“C’mon. Your taste is obviously controversial,” Luke sneers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reggie grips on tight to his bass as he watches them go at it. Luke walks right up to Alex’s drums and points and curls his lips, and Alex is right there, standing up at his full height and glaring down at Luke with fire in his eyes. It looks like the only thing keeping them apart is the kickdrum and crash cymbal between them. This is bad. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Really</span>
  </em>
  <span> bad, actually. Reggie can’t remember the last time they fought this seriously. Usually everything blows over before anyone gets a chance to really raise their voice, but right now, Luke and Alex are spitting venom at each other like it’s been building up for years.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>(Maybe it has?)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The thought chills Reggie to the core.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” Reggie cuts in. “Maybe we can just work out a different—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not now,” Luke says without even looking at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Man, what’s your problem?” Alex demands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My </span>
  <em>
    <span>problem</span>
  </em>
  <span> is that you’re more concerned with your crush than any of us!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like </span>
  <em>
    <span>you’re</span>
  </em>
  <span> one to talk.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Julie’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> part of the band. She lives for music, she literally makes our music come to life. It’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>different!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what? I’m lesser just because Willie doesn’t happen to play an instrument? Because he’s not useful to the band? I didn’t know that all romantic partners had to be musically qualified before I’m allowed to date them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not about that! It’s about you ditching your responsibilities!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m allowed to enjoy things that aren’t you,” Alex snaps. “The world doesn’t revolve around Luke Patterson! It doesn’t even revolve around music, dude.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Luke screeches. “Dude, we’re ghosts specifically because we couldn’t get enough of music when we were alive!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you sure about that?” Alex asks icily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Okay. Okay, don’t freak out, Reggie. They’re just fighting. Boys fight. Teenage boys fight— actually, </span>
  <em>
    <span>teenage boys</span>
  </em>
  <span> fight more than any other kind of boys. Totally normal. They’re just making up for all the lost time when they’re usually happy and sweet and considerate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Except oh god what if they never make up and there is no band and this is the end of what they used to have together—)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>((And what if all the times they said </span>
  <em>
    <span>‘we’ll be here for you forever’</span>
  </em>
  <span> that was actually just empty words to get him to shut up and stop crying and go back to normal?))</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tears start pooling up in Reggie’s eyes without his permission.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you saying you don’t want to do music?” Luke asks. By now, his voice is steely and unfriendly and guarded in a way he never takes up with anyone he’s not furious at.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course not,” Alex scoffs. “You’re being dramatic. Like always.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m dramatic?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, you can’t handle someone pointing out valid critique!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As if what you contributed was a critique,” Luke scoffs. “It was a heckle.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought you could handle the truth,” Alex exclaims. “I thought you could listen to your bandmate’s thoughts without getting overly defensive, but here we are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s my music!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And this </span>
  <em>
    <span>particular part</span>
  </em>
  <span> of your music sucks!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reggie feels his heart beating out of his chest. He needs to do something before this is unfixable. The only thing he can think of is to get them to turn away from each other with a distraction. So he takes a deep breath and calls out, “Guys—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They both shout at him simultaneously, giving a “shut up!” from Alex and a “stay out of it” from Luke, but neither of them so much as turn to look at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All you do, every day, is sit here and write and write. You don’t listen to new stuff, and you don’t try to experience the world. The only living person you even care about is Julie, and I bet that’s only because she’s helping you out with music too! You just keep sitting here in your echo chamber, so focused on— on the damn songs that you forget that </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span> you write is supposed to mean something!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you accusing me of writing music that means </span>
  <em>
    <span>nothing?”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Luke yells.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m accusing you of being </span>
  <em>
    <span>self-centered,</span>
  </em>
  <span> that’s for sure!”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You?</span>
  </em>
  <span> The dude who keeps getting lost and ditching the band for his boyt—“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Finish that word, </span>
  <em>
    <span>I dare you!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Reggie takes a step back and poofs away before his back foot even hits the ground. He looks around and finds himself in Julie’s bedroom. He </span>
  <em>
    <span>shouldn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> be here - he did promise that he wouldn’t go in without an invitation - but he breathes in and the room smells like Julie’s laundry detergent and the tears finally break free from his eyes and he collapses, curling up into a ball and backing himself up against Julie’s bed. His breaths come heavier and faster, and he’s sobbing ugly against his knees. His bass is— actually, he’s got no clue. Maybe it disappeared because of ghost magic or something. It </span>
  <b>so</b>
  <span> doesn’t matter right now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Because his friends don’t fight like this. They’re supposed to be teflon, bound together by fate and by friendship and by sheer willpower and by the belief that if they decide, they can choose to be brothers and choose to be brothers even if they weren’t born that way. But they are actually fighting for the first time, and Reggie feels like the world is falling apart.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>((What is he supposed to do if the band breaks up? Julie’s house is home, now, but if he’s not welcome here anymore, he doesn’t know where else to go. Home was supposed to be the band. Home was supposed to be wherever Luke is crashing at the moment, wherever Alex stops running, wherever they’re together. He doesn’t want to pick between them.))</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(((Oh god, what if none of them want him around, and he has to be alone?)))</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hears faintly the heavy rhythmic beats of someone stomping up the stairs, and a grumble that approaches, and the door to Julie’s room swings open.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh, I thought I told you guys to stay ou—” the angry voice and the thumping footsteps stop. “Reggie?” Julie asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reggie opens his mouth to apologize and just blubbers, gasping out a breath and sniffling. He covers his face and manages a strangled “‘m sorry,” at the very least.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my gosh,” Julie exclaims, rushing forward and falling to her knees. “Reggie! What’s going on? Are you okay? What happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a pause, Reggie has to remember that she doesn’t know what’s going on in the studio, and his tears spring up all over again. “’M sorry. It’s not me. ’S not— I tried to stop th’m—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not—? Stop who?” Julie asks, furrowing her brow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Luke ‘n ‘lex,” he mumbles, waving a hand in the direction of the studio. “I— they just—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey. Hey,” Julie interrupts, staring him in the eye. “Let’s take some deep breaths. Okay? We need to breathe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reggie sniffles. “B’t I’m dead? I don’t need t—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slowly, Reggie nods and lifts his head fully. Julie breathes in loudly through her nose and Reggie tries to copy, but his lungs give out along the way and shudder out staggered puffs of air in an involuntary sob. But Julie doesn’t look angry or upset, she just nods and breathes in again, gesturing for him to copy. It takes a long time for him to get matched up, admittedly, and it surprises him how calmly Julie reacts to that. She doesn’t get impatient or leave so he can figure it out on his own. She just keeps going and going until he’s self-conscious enough to tug his flannel off his waist and use it to wipe his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hides his face in it for a few long seconds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” he croaks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For what?” Julie asks, sounding very very concerned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For—” Reggie gets choked up and has to swallow before he can say, “I couldn’t get them to stop fighting.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Th— Alex and Luke?” Julie asks. “What are they fighting about?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I— uh— something,” Reggie says, but then he realizes that that sounds like he’s blaming them. “It was nothing. Uh, music. Or— time? Or priorities. Maybe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Maybe?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He crumples. “I don’t know. It was kinda scary.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Julie doesn’t say anything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” he whispers. “I know it’s not very cool to be freaked out over nothing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If it scared you, I doubt it was nothing,” Julie says definitively. “They’re your friends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re my </span>
  <em>
    <span>family,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> he says quickly, so instinctively that he barely intends to say it at all. He pauses after he does, though. It’s true, but it’s also more than that, and more than Julie knows. “They’re my family. They’re all I have. I should have talked to them, stopped them from getting too far into it. And now— now if they hate each other, it’s all gonna be </span>
  <em>
    <span>my fault, </span>
  </em>
  <span>because I let things get bad without doing anything. I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not that serious is it?” Julie asks. But when Reggie doesn’t answer, the lightness drops from her voice and she repeats, “is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reggie sniffles and digs his fingers tighter into his flannel.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let me go talk to them,” she says.</span>
  <span>He smothers the urge to begin sobbing again. If she starts fighting them too… but then again, how much worse can it get?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be back,” she says. “I promise.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” he says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She gets up and runs out, thumping her way down the stairs and out of earshot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a long while, Reggie just sits there in the same position. And then, uncomfortably, he leans forward and peels off his leather jacket which became gross and sweaty a while ago. Instead, he slides on the red flannel, which is cool to the touch and soft on his skin and just heavy enough on his arms to be comforting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(He got it at a pawn shop when he was really young, following an older cooler friend who ended up moving to a different state before long. But the memory was mostly of a time when he got out of the house, away from his parents and the yelling, and the flannel happened to be the first thing he got that wasn’t from his parents.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>((It was the first thing that he was given without a guilt trip tacked to the end. No </span>
  <em>
    <span>“you better wear this long enough to make it worth the cost”</span>
  </em>
  <span> and no </span>
  <em>
    <span>“let’s see how long this one lasts until you ruin it”</span>
  </em>
  <span> and no </span>
  <em>
    <span>“I bet you won’t even put this on, will you brat?”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Just a </span>
  <em>
    <span>“here, it’ll look cool.”</span>
  </em>
  <span>))</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(((Safety blanket. Home away from home, even if nobody knew it.)))</span>
</p><p>
  <span>((((The guys knew it. They didn’t count.))))</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He has no idea how much time has passed since Julie left, but he feels terribly alone. He remembers this feeling. The quiet in the house after Dad stormed out to go to a bar and Mom stormed down to the cellar to do some in-home drinking and the rest of the residence was left in eerie silence. Eye of the storm. Everyone thinks they’re right if they stew on an argument that nobody won. Everyone gets angrier when they’re drunk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So, when two familiar ghosts poof in, he naturally flinches.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Reggie,” Alex says quietly, in a sort of unreadable voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Reg,” Luke says. He kneels down on Reggie’s left side, and Alex mirrors him a moment later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey we—” Alex stops mid-thought. “I’m sorry I raised my voice at you. I shouldn’t have done that. I got way too carried away back there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah that was… like, </span>
  <em>
    <span>way</span>
  </em>
  <span> out of line. I shouldn’t have brushed you off either,” Luke agrees. “Totally not cool.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay,” Reggie says quietly, and then he ducks down his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Reggie, talk to us, man,” Luke begs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m okay. We’re good,” he mumbles into his legs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well… well it seems like you’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> good, though,” Luke says hesitantly. “C’mon, man. We should talk this out. What’s on your mind?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Julie said we scared you,” Alex says. “Y— you didn’t think we were going to </span>
  <em>
    <span>hit you</span>
  </em>
  <span>, did you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“No,</span>
  </em>
  <span> no,” Reggie rushes to say, jerking his head up. He glances at each of them and takes a deep breath. “You aren’t those types of people. You’re good people. I know that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then what?” Luke asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Swallowing thickly, Reggie stares at the floor. “It’s just… good people can be good and still hate each other.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Woah, </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Who said hate? It was just a little fight,” Luke says, confused. “It’s no big - we just have to cool off and take a step back. Everything’s gonna be fine tomorrow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s how it always starts,” Reggie whispers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How it—” Alex cuts himself off by reaching forward and putting his hand on Reggie’s shoulder. “Reggie. You know that Luke and I love each other, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reggie nods.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We </span>
  <em>
    <span>aren’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> like your parents,” Alex says firmly. “When we say forever, we mean it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh,” Luke says. His eyes widen. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“Oh!</span>
  </em>
  <span> Yeah— Reg, he’s right, we’re brothers forever. Like, </span>
  <em>
    <span>actual</span>
  </em>
  <span> forever. Not whatever your parents thought ‘forever’ meant.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever we were fighting about doesn’t matter in the long run. It’s just a little thing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sometimes little things pile up,” Reggie says. “First it’s fights about the tiny things, and then it’s about the people who do the tiny things, and then you realize it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> really about the things, just the person.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hand on his shoulder grips his jacket and pulls him forward, bodily dragging him to attention. Alex stares him in the eye and says, “I won’t let that happen to us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We get to decide, Reg,” Luke says. “It’s up to us to make it work, so we’ll make it work. No matter what.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But what if you change your mind?” Reggie asks nervously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Never. Never </span>
  <em>
    <span>ever,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Luke says emphatically. He leans forward and wraps Reggie up in his arms, not even pausing to let Reggie get his knees under him. Reggie literally dangles for a few seconds against Luke’s body. “You’re stuck with us for the rest of time, dude. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Literally</span>
  </em>
  <span> ride or die.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then another set of arms wrap around him, and Alex drags the both of them into his chest. They go tilting over, but Alex is tall and strong and he catches them. “Me too. And we mean it, Reggie. There’s nothing in the whole world that could make me hate the two of you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reggie whispers, “promise?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cross my heart,” Alex says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hope to die,” Luke finishes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We already did that one,” Reggie jokes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Luke scoffs, but his arms squeeze Reggie closer, so it’s a pretty solid win.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The door creaks open. “Oh— guys, really? Group hugs?” Julie’s voice asks. “It took me two minutes to walk back here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Two minutes too long! What kept you?” Luke demands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A father who was very confused as to why I recently stormed out of the house,” Julie says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well now that that’s over with, you wanna get in on this?” Alex asks. “C’mon. Turn this from a Sunset Curve thing to a Phantoms thing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You realize that you three are the Phantoms, right? It’s already a Phantoms thing,” she remarks, but all the same she comes up behind Reggie and wraps her arms all of their shoulders. Or, that’s what Reggie thinks happens, until Alex and Luke’s heads wrench backwards and they yelp. Reggie pulls back in confusion and sees the surprising sight of Julie’s fingers tugging sharply on his bandmates’ ears.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Julie, ow!” Luke exclaims.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You did apologize, right?” Julie asks in the most threatening tone Reggie’s heard in a while.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, yeah we did!” Luke says quickly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We learned the power of friendship and regret and the value of being considerate and all that junk!” Alex says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just making sure,” she says, voice suddenly light again. Her hands let go of their ears. “Can’t have you two off brooding while poor Reggie thinks the band’s breaking up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whaaat?” Reggie forces out in a high-toned voice. He tries to laugh it off. “I never said that! C’mon Julie, don’t lie to them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were thinking it,” Julie says simply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well he doesn’t have to worry,” Luke says. “That’s never gonna happen. Never in a million years.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you two make up too?” Julie asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t really remember what we were even fighting about,” Alex says. “But whatever it was, if it comes up again, we’ll handle it better. We’re adults.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>no</span>
  </em>
  <span> we’re not. We’re eternally seventeen,” Luke says. “How’d you forget that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What if we start aging now that we’re out of that dark room?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Have you ever heard of aging ghosts?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve heard a lot of misconceptions about ghost culture, actually. Can’t you be optimistic?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s optimistic about aging?” Luke squacks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The fact that if you don’t age, Julie’s gonna be older than you in less than two years.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not cool, dude.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kinda cool,” Julie cuts in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Julie, no! It’s gonna be creepy if you’re older than me,” Luke whines.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really? You’re a ghost, dude. I don’t think age is the creepy part of that relationship,” Alex says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’re arguing, but they’re not. It’s back to normal - and not the bad kind of normal where they’re always waiting for some new disaster or scrapping together some new last-second performance - the actual kind of normal where they have time to waste doing whatever they want. And it’s so so nice to realize that what they want, right now, is to hang out hugging him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(It’s home.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you guys,” Reggie says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone goes silent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry,” he whispers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t be,” Julie says. She presses her cheek against his back and wraps her arms around his front. “We’re a family. Love’s a given, and we shouldn’t be afraid to say it. Right, guys?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. Definitely,” Luke says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We love you, Reg,” Alex says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reggie sniffles and closes his eyes, and he is happy.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thanks for reading! remember to tell your friends that you love them!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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